Method and system for defining and applying a style to a paragraph

1. For an electronic system for creating and editing an electronic document, the document comprising a paragraph associated with at least one formatting property, a method for defining a style for the paragraph, the method comprising the steps of: automatically identifying a paragraph type of the paragraph by examining the at least one formatting property; and automatically internally tagging the paragraph as the identified paragraph type.

2. The method recited in claim 1, further comprising the step of determining an appropriate style to define for the paragraph based upon the identified paragraph type.

3. The method recited in claim 2, further comprising the step of determining whether the appropriate style has already been defined and, if not, then storing the at least one formatting property in association with the appropriate style, wherein the appropriate style defines the style for the paragraph.

4. For an electronic system for creating and editing an electronic document, the document comprising a paragraph associated with at least one major formatting property and at least one minor formatting property, a method for defining a style for the paragraph, the method comprising the steps of: automatically identifying a paragraph type of the paragraph by examining the at least one major formatting property; determining an appropriate style to define for the paragraph based upon the paragraph type; determining whether the appropriate style has already been defined; and if not, then storing the at least one major formatting property and the at least one minor formatting property in association with the appropriate style, wherein the appropriate style defines the style for the paragraph.

5. The method recited in claim 4, further comprising the step of applying the appropriate style to the paragraph.

6. The method recited in claim 5, further comprising the step of removing at least one direct formatting property.

7. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the step of identifying the paragraph type of the paragraph comprises analyzing a plurality of features of the paragraph to determine the paragraph type, wherein the paragraph type is a general, functional description of the paragraph.

8. The method recited in claim 7, wherein the paragraph type can be identified as one of either heading or body text.

9. The method recited in claim 7, wherein the plurality of features comprises the length of the paragraph, capitalization of the paragraph, and punctuation of the paragraph.

10. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the step of identifying the paragraph type of the paragraph comprises the steps of: determining whether the paragraph is one line in length and, if not, then identifying the paragraph type as body text; if the paragraph is one line in length, then determining whether at least one major formatting property matches a plurality of major formatting properties of a previously defined body text style and, if so, then determining whether the paragraph ends in one of a predetermined set of punctuation marks and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as body text; if the at least one major formatting property does not match the plurality of major formatting properties of a previously defined body text style, or if the paragraph does not end in a period, a question mark, an exclamation point, or a colon, then determining whether the paragraph begins with a capital letter; if the paragraph begins with a capital letter, then determining whether the paragraph ends with an exclamation point, question mark, or no punctuation and, if so, then determining whether the paragraph is one of a predetermined set of text characteristics and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as a heading; and if the paragraph is not bold, italicized, or underlined, then determining whether the point size of the paragraph is larger than the point size for a normal style, and, if so, then identifying the paragraph type as a heading.

11. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 10.

12. The method recited in claim 4, wherein the step of determining the appropriate style to define for the paragraph comprises the step of analyzing a plurality of features of the paragraph to determine one of a plurality of specific functional styles, wherein the one of the plurality of specific functional styles corresponds to a specific function of the paragraph in the document, and wherein the one of the plurality of specific functional styles comprises the appropriate style.

13. The method recited in claim 12, wherein the plurality of features includes placement of the paragraph in the document and indentation of the paragraph.

14. The method recited in claim 10, wherein the predetermined set of punctuation marks comprises a period, a question mark, an exclamation point and a colon.

15. The method recited in claim 10, wherein the predetermined set of text characteristics comprises bold, italicized, and underlined.

16. For an electronic system for creating and editing an electronic document, the document comprising a paragraph, associated with at least one formatting property, a method for applying a style to the paragraph, the method comprising the steps of: automatically identifying a paragraph type of the paragraph by examining the at least one formatting property; determining whether the paragraph type of the paragraph is capable of having a style defined and, if not, then determining whether the at least one formatting property matches a plurality of formatting properties of a previously defined style and, if so, then applying the previously defined style to the paragraph; if the paragraph type is capable of having a style defined, then determining whether the at least one formatting property matches the plurality of formatting properties of a previously defined style, wherein a paragraph type of the previously defined style matches the paragraph type of the paragraph and, if so, then applying the previously defined style to the paragraph; if at least one formatting property does not match the plurality of formatting properties of a previously defined style, wherein the paragraph type of the previously defined style matches the paragraph type of the paragraph, then defining a style; and applying the style to the paragraph.

17. A computer system for applying a style to a paragraph, comprising: a processor; and a memory storage device for storing a program module; the processor, responsive to instructions from the program module, being operative to; automatically determine whether a style can be defined for the paragraph; if not, then automatically determine whether one of a plurality of existing styles contains a plurality of formatting properties that match a plurality of formatting properties of the paragraph, and, if so, then apply the matching existing style to the paragraph; if a style can be defined for the paragraph, then automatically determine whether one of a plurality of existing styles contains a plurality of formatting properties that match the plurality of formatting properties of the paragraph, and, if so, then apply the matching existing style to the paragraph; and if a style can be defined for the paragraph and it is determined there is not a matching existing style, then automatically define a style for the paragraph and automatically apply the defined style to the paragraph.